The English Wool Trade

Published9th February 2018

Share this article

Chapter
2
: Economics of Sheep-Farming

The average number of sheep owned was around 20 – 30. Often,
people would combine some sheep-ownership with other professions. The largest
flocks numbered in the thousands. Sir Henry Fermor of East Barsham, Norfolk, died in
1521 with 20 flocks totalling 15,500 head.

During the sixteenth century, the government attempted to
limit the number of sheep individuals could own – in 1533, the maximum was set
at 2,400. Sheep could not be farmed to the exclusion of other livestock; for
every 60 animals, at least one milking cow was required by a statue of 1555,
and a calf for every 120 sheep.

Despite this attempt at limiting individual flock size, over
the sixteenth century flocks continued to increase, with a corresponding
decrease in the number of individual flock-owners. As with everything,
sheep-farming benefited from economies of scale.

The value of each sheep would, of course. grow or decline in
line with the value of wool, and food. Towards the end of the sixteenth
century, a wether (an adult castrated ram), was worth about three or four times
the value of its annual wool production.

In the century from 1450, the price of wool doubled, whilst
the price of grain remained more-or-less static until the 1520s, after which
point grain prices rose steeply, doubling within 20 years, despite the general
ban on grain export.

During the period 1540 – 1547, annual raw wool export
averaged 5,025 sacks, and the equivalent of 28,790 sacks of finished
cloth. About half the amount of cloth
was retained for the home market, so a total of 50,723 sacks has been estimated
as the annual production of wool for England and Wales in those years. This has
been calculated as equating to 10,700,000 sheep (including lambs and
yearlings).

The massive inflation which stalked England in the 1540s and
the depreciation of the currency created problems; the Staplers agitated tor
control of wool sales and to cut out the middlemen, whom they blamed for
keeping prices of raw wool high. Legislation was introduced in 1552, preventing
stocks going to foreign purchasers, at least between Easter and the Feast of
the Purification (February), and giving first refusal to Staplers of wool sold
at local markets.

Trade was further restricted by wool-producers being fined
for holding stock for more than a year, if they had been offered the market
price for it – a market now almost entirely in the hands of the Staplers.
Should the producer ignore this, there was a profit of 5s per tod of wool for
any informer who laid an information against him to the magistrates. The Crown
collected the same amount in fines.

Also aimed at controlling the activities of middlemen was
the 1551 provision preventing the resale of sheep within 5 weeks of purchase.

Whether the legislation was to blame, or wider economic
factors, in 1551, the price of English wool and cloth for export collapsed, not
recovering for a quarter of a century. At the same time, the price of grain was
continuing its massive growth, and enclosing for sheep-farming more or less
stopped.

The anti-competitive legislation of 1551 was gradually
chipped away by special licences granted to particular areas – Norfolk, Halifax
and Woodstock to name but three – where local growers and middlemen were free
to trade as they chose.

There was another boom in wool price between 1603 – 1610,
followed by a further dramatic fall, leaving the price of a stone of wool in
Lincolnshire in 1622 at 10s, compared with 12s in 1595.

The value of the fleece was a combination of weight and the
type of wool the animal produced. As a rule of thumb, sheep reared on better
pasture (usually lowland) make longer, coarser wool, whilst sheep pastured on
the uplands have shorter, finer wool. As more land was transferred from arable
to sheep, longer wool began to increase in prevalence, with a resulting loss in
reputation, and increased competition from Spain as the provider of the finest
wool in Europe. Shearing took place in mid-summer, a couple of weeks after the
flock had been washed. Skilled handlers could wash around 100 animals per day,
but only shear around 80.

It has been estimated that, in 1600, the best English wool Lemster
Ore, was produced along the Welsh Border, in Herefordshire, Shropshire and
Staffordshire, with the next best quality coming from Gloucestershire,
Wiltshire, Worcestershire and Hampshire. In Gloucestershire, sheep were generally of either the Ryeland (sometimes known as Hereford) or the Cotswold
variety. Cotswolds were not as fine as
Herefords, but produced fine, heavy fleeces, although the breed deteriorated
over time.

The benefit of longer wools was their suitability for
worsted, which was the major growth area for cloth. Worsted is different from
woollen cloth, in that it is smoother, harder, stronger and finer: think wool
suit versus knitted jumper. By the 1570s, the flocks of Oxfordshire,
Northamptonshire, Warwickshire and Buckinghamshire were thought particularly
suitable for it.

Meat was a minor product of a sheep’s utility, with few
being slaughtered until their wool was no longer of high enough quality. With
the collapse in prices in the 1550s, more mutton began to appear on the market,
and this continued well into the next century. The growing size of London was a
factor in this – a wealthy merchant class demanded more meat in its diet. By
1600, mutton chops from Oxfordshire and Wiltshire were gracing London tables,
arriving on the hoof and being sold at Smithfield market. Welsh mutton was
particularly prized for its sweetness.

The other by-product of sheep that had a value was the
manure – important for arable farming. Animals could be leased for a year to
replenish exhausted land, with the owner often taking payment in the animal’s
wool.

There were sheepskins or fells too, from the slaughtered
beasts. Just before it was dissolved in 1536, Norwich Priory sold 516 fells for
£4 6s. The skins might be used for leather or parchment, and the wool scrapings
for bedding. The use of sheep’s milk for drinking or cheese production seems
gradually to have been replaced over the sixteenth century by cow’s milk.

Whilst nowadays we might expect most sheep to bear at least
one lamb, if not twins, each year, sixteenth century flocks were less prolific
– usually averaging less than 0.5 lambs per annum. The ratio of tups to ewes varied
widely – from as high as 1 ram to 7 ewes to as many as 1:39. Tups between the
ages of eighteen months and 6 years were considered ideal, and ewes did not
begin their maternal careers until they had been shorn twice.

Sheep are less hardy than they seem – being particularly
susceptible to too much rain. The animals were doctored with the same repellent
mixtures as humans had to endure. One remedy included painting young sheep and
lambs with a concoction of tallow and tar.